Monday, August 29, 2011

Monsignor: Accused too old or sick to cope with claims

THE former child protection delegate in the Diocese of
Cloyne has attempted to explain his failure to report complaints of
child sex abuse by saying the accused priests were often aged or sick.

Monsignor
Denis O’Callaghan criticised the Catholic Church’s protection
guidelines for offering little discretion if they felt the accused
priest was unable to cope with the consequences of an abuse complaint.

The former Mallow parish priest also noted in a letter to the
Irish Catholic that "with many others I winced when understandably
angry people [victims] expressed the wish that an accused priest would
burn in hell".

"For most of those priests accused in Cloyne,
the complaints alleged incidents dating back over 30 or 40 years. Of
those priests some would now be terminally ill while others would be
under constant medical care. The literal guidelines did not allow for
any discretion to bishops and to their delegates. Reporting was to be
made immediately," he wrote.

"No exception was to be made even
when an accused priest was on his death-bed. The plea that there was no
further risk to children was not a protection against a charge of
cover-up."

Mgr O’Callaghan repeated his concerns, voiced when
the framework guidelines were being drafted in 1996 and again to the
Murphy Commission, that the "fundamental Christian duty of pastoral care
was compromised by the form of mandatory reporting required in the
framework document".

"I doubt that anyone, including the
bishops, appreciated the implications of that term immediately,
particularly in Cloyne as in the Irish diocesan situation generally,
where the accused priests were either dead or very aged," he said.

"In my memoir Putting Hand to the Plough I have explained the role of
pastoral care in dealing with clerical sex abuse. That duty essentially
applies across the board to everyone suffering the consequences of sex
abuse, primarily the victim but also the transgressor.

"Pastoral care is a duty enjoined on Christians by the teaching of Jesus
in the Gospel. In the generality of cases the guidelines could be
readily incorporated within pastoral care. There were some cases, as in
those mentioned above, where as a Christian one was duty bound to extend
pastoral care to anyone in sore need.

"Judge Yvonne Murphy
was made aware of the Cloyne commitment to pastoral care but the
commission focused on its remit of reporting on whether or not
procedures were fulfilled.

"In hindsight I accept that I
should have resigned on the point of principle from my role as delegate
once I came to realise the implications of the 1996 guidelines for the
over-riding duty of pastoral care," Mgr O’Callaghan said.